Board Meeting Minutes — January 2016

The KOPN/New Wave Corporation board meeting for the month of January, 2016, was held on the 21st day of the month in the Cope Ashlock room. Minutes were recorded by board secretary Heather O’Connor.

In attendance were board members John Betz, Dan Hemmelgarn, Gail Plemmons, Tao Weilundemo, Ellen Schlie, David Owens, and Laird Okie. Also attending were William Dellinger and Heather O’Connor. A recount of the votes after last Sunday’s meeting revealed that there was a tie between these two nominees.

Seating of new board members: The places to be filled include 3 3-year positions, 1 2-year position and two 1-year terms.

Gail and Laird volunteered for one-year terms. William was appointed for a one-year term. Ellen, John and Tao will serve three-year terms, and Heather will serve a two-year turn.

Regarding voting for board members, it was noted that some members reported having received the ballot in the mail later than the date of the meeting.

Financial report:

Funds from CoMo Gives were not received yet. Because the campaign is so late in the calendar year, funds are generally not received until the next year.

John Betz moved that CoMo Gives donations will be applied to membership for the subsequent year; Tao seconded the motion, which passed by voice vote.

All nominations passed by voice vote and the nominees agreed to serve as such.

Upcoming events and news:

Friday will be an Porchlight Storytelling event at the station, an abortion speak out.

The annual Women’s Weekend will take place March 12 &13 in collaboration with the Hartsburg Grand.

Staff member Meg Poche is recovering at home after falling at the station last Thursday. David Owens expressed concern that she wanted to not file a report under workman’s compensation. He will consult the station’s insurance agent to see what our legal obligations are as regards this.

The Community Advisory Board is accepting new members and will meet again but it hasn’t been scheduled. Any new potential members can be referred to Dan Hemmelgarn. There are three current members and more would be welcome. Lorraine Botts, Tom Verdeau and a third member are serving.

Tao demonstrated the new website design and handed out a page describing the streaming music info, including licensing fees etc. The goal is to soon have all content streamable immediately after the show has aired.

The shows will all be saved on the website, where the host of a show can log in.

The building lease was discussed. There was discussion of David Owens contacting Dick Dalton, David Dalton and/or Patsy Dalton, and possibly talking to Marbury and Eagle.

The lease of a Socket transmitter on the tower is no longer on the table. Dan Hemmelgarn contacted them.

Grants:

Missouri River Relief has a call for grant proposals on their website, which may be of interest to the station. William Dillinger noted his affiliation with this group.

Restoring the function of the news production room:

A new computer needs to be set up running Windows 7, 8, or 10. The current one is XP. Gary Novak has been doing volunteer work on computers at the station.

The audit is underway, and David Owens noted that there were quite a few items written off.

Ellen Schlie suggested the use of the concept of “sustaining member” status for those who want to continue their periodic contribution indefinitely.

Gail Plemmons requested the next meeting have some time put aside for a fundraising proposal.

The formulation of a strategic plan will be also be part of next month’s agenda.

A pair of handouts distributed to attending members describe the performance review process and the General Manager’s duties (Article 5.01 of the By-Laws of the New Wave Corporation). Next month more discussion of the performance review will ensue, as time ran short this month.

There was a brief discussion about the possibility that some operational knowledge may be known only by Mike McGowan (tower), and the need for more redundancy in the collective knowledge base of the station volunteers and board members. John Betz has been putting together some information, and is also willing to lead a field trip to the tower and the repeating tower at the top of Paquin at a future date to be determined.